God Did Not Expect Such Cruelty

God Did Not Expect Such Cruelty

"But one of the Lord’s prophets named Oded was there. Oded met the Israelite army that came back to Samaria. He said to the Israelite army, “The Lord, the God your ancestors worshiped, let you defeat the people of Judah because he was angry with them. But now he is angry with you, because he has seen how cruel you were in killing them." (2 Chron. 28:9; Easy to Read Version)

In the passage above God desired to discipline Judah people for their idolatry and commensurate wickedness. Hence, God removed His protection from over Judah and allowed both Syria and Israel (by this time Judah and Israel were divided into two separate nations) to defeat them in war (see 2 Chron. 28:5). However, God did not expect Israel to act with the cruelty that they did and their actions made Him angry. Hence, there was an outcome of an action that God did not foresee or desire.

If you are one who believes that God has exhaustive foreknowledge of all future events in minute detail you are going to find a lot of passages that conflict with that. You are then left with a couple of options. One option is to jump through numerous hurdles in an attempt to explain away the obvious meaning of them, thus making your philosophical ideology of God's attributes trump the plain meaning. The second option is to simply do away with the idea of exhaustive foreknowledge. I opt for the latter.

If God foreknew exhaustively how cruelly Judah's own brethren, Israel, would treat them, do you think that He would have permitted their actions? It would seem from the text here that the answer is a resounding "no." God expected Israel to administer some discipline to Judah but not in the manner that they did. If God knew from eternity past that this would happen then why would He get angry about it?

I am a simple man and not a theologian. Since I am not a theologian I am free from the obligation of having to defend an unnecessary and unprovable idea such as exhaustive foreknowledge. I am able to read such texts and see God's genuine heart, integrity, and utter hatred for violence and cruel actions. I hope you can too.

Visit our web page:
www.vindicatinggod.org

Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/vindicatinggod/

Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/_victoriousword

Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXn0mUpckKTDhLiRiR5PIJg